Re: Cataclysm Friends & Family Alpha

Re: Cataclysm Friends & Family Alpha

Originally Posted by ethzero

Lawsuit? Not like you would be under NDA.

The thing with fansites are that you obey Blizzard rules from start to end. Every officiall fansite agrees to a Code of Conduct, and if that's broken by any means, you don't get to be in the fansite program.

I quote:

"2. Code of Conduct. As in all things, your membership in the World of Warcraft Fansite Program is governed by certain rules of conduct that must be adhered to by all members. It is your responsibility to know, understand and abide by the following rules of conduct:

§3. Fan sites should neither host nor direct others to hacks, cheats, exploits, or unreleased content. Such content is damaging to the game and the community; since we are attempting to build the community and encourage its growth, we ask that you do not host or link to such content on your site. This includes “leaked” information such as unconfirmed patch notes. Violation of this rule can result in removal from the program."

And the third chapter states:

"3. Equitable Relief. You hereby agree that Blizzard would be irreparably damaged if the terms of this Code of Conduct were not specifically enforced, and therefore you agree that Blizzard shall be entitled, without bond, other security, or proof of damages, to appropriate equitable remedies with respect to breaches of this Code of Conduct in addition to such other remedies as Blizzard may otherwise have available to it under applicable laws. In the event any litigation is brought by either party in connection with this Code of Conduct, the prevailing party in such litigation shall be entitled to recover from the other party all the costs, attorneys’ fees and other expenses incurred by such prevailing party in the litigation."

So yes, posting anything on your officiall website, when you've accepted the Code of Conduct, can lead to court and lawsuits. That's why no one, even The Master of Leaks (Boub) won't leak anything to the public.

To sum it up: 1. You break the rules that Blizzard made to the officiall Blizzard fansites (in this case World of Warcraft) & 2. By breaking the rules, if repeated, could lead to either fansite program termination or a lawsuit.

No one _needs_ to know anything about Cataclysm. There is no universal _need_ to know something that you are not supposed to know - Yet.

When the first beta-phase arrives (for press and public selected people), the NDA will be lifted, I quote the beta preparation, press admittance e-mail:

"As a final note, we do not currently have a date to announce for the start of the beta test. Once it does start, there will be no NDA associated with the beta so you will be free to write and take screens or capture videos as you please."

That's when you'll get your information. IF you find information on another site, that's fine, they don't simply care. Or they're simply not a fansite. A fansite support Blizzard in every weather, that's why it's called a fansite, not a leaksite

Re: Cataclysm Friends & Family Alpha

You shouldn't link to a wow account page where it's going to ask you to log in. Not because you're not trustworthy, but so you don't teach people the bad habit of typing their info into a link from an outside page.

Re: Cataclysm Friends & Family Alpha

MMO wont ever with alpha I doubt they even did for WOTLK Alpha. Boub is smart enough to protect his site.

I have yet to find a site that will leak decent alpha data I do co-edit for a cataclysm fan site, but I will not post any alpha leaks in effort to protect my own ass from a lawsuit.

If you didn't specifically agree to the NDA, they can't "sue" you. They can only (literally) force you to take it down with threats of legal ramifications. It's a safe guess that Boub is in the Alpha, hence he cannot do it. If you're not in the alpha, you didn't agree to anything and they can't adhere a contract to you that you never agreed upon. Images need to be taken off this site because again, Boub agreed to the NDA, and this site is owned by Boub.

Then again, judging by your avatar showing that you're a female, you seem to yearn for attention, so I'm going to guess you don't have any information everyone else hasn't already seen anyway.

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age"

Re: Cataclysm Friends & Family Alpha

Originally Posted by skylla05

If you didn't specifically agree to the NDA, they can't "sue" you. They can only (literally) force you to take it down with threats of legal ramifications.

Even if you don't agree to the NDA personally, posting images you know to be gained via someone else violating their NDA seems a shady thing to do. It's like you have a friend who robs a bank, then you use the money that you know is stolen for your own benefit. (Except, less dramatic legally. Still, I'm sure they can ban you if they can figure out your account -- it's their game and all that.)

Originally Posted by skylla05

Then again, judging by your avatar showing that you're a female, you seem to yearn for attention, so I'm going to guess you don't have any information everyone else hasn't already seen anyway.

Re: Cataclysm Friends & Family Alpha

Not sure if it really means anything but http://www.wow-europe.com/beta-charcopy/ is now showing a Apache Tomcat 403 thing :P Thought it might mean its going to be up soon or something, but I thought I'd point it out

Re: Cataclysm Friends & Family Alpha

Originally Posted by Sunshine

Even if you don't agree to the NDA personally, posting images you know to be gained via someone else violating their NDA seems a shady thing to do. It's like you have a friend who robs a bank, then you use the money that you know is stolen for your own benefit. (Except, less dramatic legally. Still, I'm sure they can ban you if they can figure out your account -- it's their game and all that.)

There is nothing illegal if you're not the source of the leak. Worst Blizzard can do is claim use of their copyright without consent and force you to take it down. If you add something to it to turn it into a joke, that would be parody and count as fair use and render Blizzard powerless to in a legal battle.

Re: Cataclysm Friends & Family Alpha

Originally Posted by east1337

The thing with fansites are that you obey Blizzard rules from start to end. Every officiall fansite agrees to a Code of Conduct, and if that's broken by any means, you don't get to be in the fansite program.

The problem with this logic is that mmo-champion.com is NOT an official fansite and has no official dealings with Blizzard. As such they have no responsibilities to Blizzard and can freely post whatever they want.

The thing is because the information is under an NDA Blizzard can sent a letter asking boub to cease and desist (C&D) which he has all the rights in the world to turn down. After that Blizzard can go to court with their NDA backing them and have a C&D order put out forcing mmo-champion to remove all information that is described in the NDA.

If anything is going to happen you'll likely see all the information stripped from the site and Boub telling us that he has been asked to cease and desist.

Re: Cataclysm Friends & Family Alpha

I have copied to source code of the main page of mmo-champion before Blizzard asked Boub to remove all the Cataclysm Alpha content. So i still have some information about it on my forum but many screenshots are missing.

Now if Boub asks me to remove the content on my forum or Blizzard i will have to do so sadly =[. Also on the screenshots that you click it wont take you anywhere and give you 404 error since all of the stuff is linked of mmo-champion.